This blog on Texas education contains posts on accountability, testing, college readiness, dropouts, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues with additional focus at the national level.

The governor throws his support behind the Obama administration's
decision to give New Jersey a pass on No Child Left Behind regulations.

Gov. Chris Christie praised the federal government's decision this
week to grant a waiver releasing New Jersey from the rules of the No
Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.On Thursday, it was announced 10 states, including New Jersey,
would be granted waivers by the federal government that would allow
them to bypass the rules and regulations of NCLB and give them greater
freedom in developing systems of student accountability.The waiver comes with an approval of the state's required annual NCLB
application, in which state officials advocated for the existing
standardized testing benchmarks to be abolished. A new form of measuring
student progress is to begin in September of this year.As part of New Jersey's successful waiver application, the Christie
administration outlined plans for three principles that are in line with
the goals of the Obama administration, according to the governor's
office.These principles include college- and career-ready expectations for
all students, state-developed differentiated recognition, accountability
and support, and providing support for effective instruction and
leadership."The Obama administration's approval of our education reform agenda
contained in this application confirms that our bold, common sense, and
bipartisan reforms are right for New Jersey and shared by the president
and (Education) Secretary (Arne) Duncan's educational vision for the
country," Christie said in a prepared statement. "This is not about
Democrats or Republicans—it is about pursuing an agenda in the best
interest of our children whose educational needs are not being met, and
those who are getting a decent education but deserve a great one." Through NCLB, student groups were measured on their separate
performances, and schools were classified as making Adequate Yearly
Progress (AYP) or "In Need of Improvement."Regardless of socioeconomic background, race or individual ability,
all students were expected to meet the benchmarks set by the tests. If
one group of students did not score high enough, an entire school could
be classified as "In Need of Improvement."Schools that repeatedly failed to make AYP faced penalties that could
include anything from reduced funding, firing teachers and
administrative staff, offering more tutoring and support services, and
in extreme cases, closing, or laying off staff.NCLB was signed into law in 2001 by then-president George W. Bush. It
had a 2014 goal, in which all students were to be proficient in math
and reading.Schools in New Jersey will no longer have to meet NCLB benchmarks,
but instead will be subject to a "fairer and more nuanced accountability
system ... that measures schools based on both growth and absolute
attainment," a release from the governor's office said.This new system will separate schools into three tiers: "Priority
Schools," which will be chosen from the lowest performing 5 percent of
Title I schools statewide; "Focus Schools," which will be chosen from at
least 10 percent of Title I schools; and "Reward Schools," or those
schools that demonstrate high student performance, or are making
progress in closing achievement gaps between student groups, according
to the release.These schools will be identified during the summer, with interventions to begin during the 2012-13 school year.Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers,
the largest education union in the country, said the Obama
administration was reacting to the calls from parents and educators to
fix what is often considered an imperfect system, but she was cautious
in her appraisal of the situation.If state officials do not work with teachers and administrators to
design their own new system, which should center around student learning
and not test scores, NCLB could be replaced by a system that is either
no different, or worse than the current system, she said."We remain concerned that some states may use these waivers to simply
put metrics on top of poorly constructed and implemented evaluation
systems," she said.